Politics

What is Direct Democracy Ireland?

Direct Democracy Ireland is a new political service whose aim is to restore the provisions of direct democracy to the people of Ireland, and by doing so:

To provide the people of Ireland an alternative to the current model of governance which will ensure that election promises are kept and that the interests of the people of Ireland are the deciding factor in all decisions of the government.

To create the situation whereby the people of Ireland chose their own representatives via a consultative process in local communities, and are truly represented by their government.

To create the situation whereby the government of Ireland are truly accountable for their actions.

To create the situation whereby the current arrangement of political parties in opposition to each other and employing the party whip system to enforce the party line becomes obsolete.

"We the people of Ireland demand the Irish government stop the great giveaway of Ireland's natural resources. We demand that royalty deals and the tax rate imposed upon oil and gas companies be brought in line with that of other European countries such as Norway and Great Britain. The citizens of Ireland also demand that the government renegotiate the unsustainable and unfair fishing quotas imposed upon the Irish fishing industry. The sale of Ireland's forests/harvesting rights by this government or successive governments will not be accepted or tolerated."

Last week, 3 million of us beat back America's attack on our Internet! -- but there is an even bigger threat out there, and our global movement for freedom online is perfectly poised to kill it for good.

ACTA -- a global treaty -- could allow corporations to censor the Internet. Negotiated in secret by a small number of rich countries and corporate powers, it would set up a shadowy new anti-counterfeiting body to allow private interests to police everything that we do online and impose massive penalties -- even prison sentences -- against people they say have harmed their business.

Europe is deciding right now whether to ratify ACTA -- and without them, this global attack on Internet freedom will collapse. We know they have opposed ACTA before, but some members of Parliament are wavering -- let's give them the push they need to reject the treaty. Sign the petition -- we'll do a spectacular delivery in Brussels when we reach 500,000 signatures:

US president Barack Obama signed into law on New Year's Eve a bill that, among other provisions, give the US military broader authority to detain people suspected of being affiliated with terrorists on US soil.

The bill in question is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It allocates funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also includes "counter-terrorism" provisions which would allow the military to detain anyone on US soil indefinitely, without needing to guarantee a trial.

Both critics and supporters of NDAA say this provision would apply to US citizens; however, the actual text of the bill is phrased less clearly and is ambiguous, according to an analysis by Raha Wala, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch. Wala, however, believes "it